Right arm medium pacer Sunil Dholpure grabbed four wickets for 50 runs to have Delhi reeling on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy Elite 'A' cricket league match against Madhya Pradesh at the Jamia Millia Islamia University grounds in Delhi on Saturday.
Veteran wicketkeeper-batsman Vijay Dahiya (32) shared two vital partnerships towards close of play as the lower order showed more resilience to lift Delhi 212 for seven at stumps.
Sarandeep Singh, on 31, and Rahul Sanghvi, on seven, were at the crease.
Earlier, Dholpure, who made his Ranji debut this season, picked up two wickets on either side of lunch to reduce Delhi to 105 for four.
Electing to bat, Delhi made a solid start with Akash Chopra and Shikhar Dhawan adding 46 runs for the opening stand before Dholpure had the latter caught by his namesake Sachin, for 29.
Rajat Bhatia then departed without scoring before Mithun Manhas (26) joined Chopra and steadied the rocking boat.
But two successive dismissals in the post-lunch session by Dholpure broke the back of Delhi's innings.
The Bhopal-born bowler had vice-captain Manhas caught by Ojha before trapping Abhinva Bali plumb in front.
Chopra, who had batted for more than three hours for a dour 37, fell leg before to Sanjay Pandey.
Dahiya then added 51 runs for the sixth wicket with captain Ajay Jadeja (26) before stitching a 38-run partnership with Sarandeep Singh.
Scoreboard
Delhi (1st innings):
A Chopra lbw Pandey 37
S Dhawan c Sachin M Dholpure b Sunil M Dholpure 29
R Bhatia c Abbas Ali b Sunil M Dholpure 0
M Manhas c Ojha b Sunil M Dholpure 26
A Bali lbw Sunil M Dholpure 0
A Jadeja c Abbas Ali b Pandey 26
V Dahiya c Sunil M Dholpure b Likhar 32
Sarandeep Singh not out 31
R L Sanghvi not out 7
Extras: (lb 6, nb 18) 24
Total: (7 wickets, 88 overs) 212
To bat: A Bhandari, S Gill.
Fall of wickets: 1-46, 2-50, 3-96, 4-96, 5-104, 6-155, 7-193.
Bowling: Pandey 22-4-74-2 (8nb), Sunil M Dholpure 20-7-50-4 (6nb), Bundela 20-6-27-0 (3nb), Likhar 10-2-15-1, Hirwani 16-3-40-0 (1nb).
